» Home » Guide to stamping out junk mail
In this section
- Quick Guide
- Royal Mail's 'door-to-door' service
- Get a letterbox sticker
- The DMA's 'Your Choice' scheme
- Mailing Preference Service
- Edited electoral register
- Tick the box
- Return to sender
- Contact the sender
Please keep us going
Stop Junk Mail is a self-funded, not-for-profit campaign group giving free and independent advice on how to stamp out junk mail. If you support our cause, or if we helped you stopping junk mail, why not make a small donation to keep us going? Any contribution helps and is much appreciated.
Guide to stamping out junk mail
This guide has been written to help you stamping out junk mail completely. On these pages you will find all the information you need about the most effective ways of stopping unsolicited mail as well as some practital tools, such as online opt-out forms.
The 'quick guide' on this page briefly describes what you can do to stop unsolicited mail. Each section has a link to more detailed information.
How to stop junk mail… a quick guide
There are eight different things you can do to stop junk mail (we didn't say it would be easy!). None of the opt-out schemes and preventative measures described below is a ‘golden bullet’. Our advice is simply to use all these tips.
To stop unaddressed junk mail:
- Opt out of Royal Mail's 'door-to-door' service
- Get a letterbox sticker
- Register with the DMA's 'Your Choice' scheme
To stop addressed junk mail:
- Register with the Mailing Preference Service
- Opt out of being on the edited register
- Tick the box
- 'Return to sender'
- Contact the sender
Opt out of Royal Mail's 'door-to-door' service
Approximately one in four unaddressed leaflets is delivered by Royal Mail and it is likely that the company will soon get permission to deliver a lot more unaddressed mail.
To stop Royal Mail door-drops you need to contact Royal Mail and ask them for the 'door-to-door opt-out form'. The easiest way to do this is by sending an e-mail to optout@royalmail.com.
Please note that Royal Mail will want to send you the opt-out form by post; your e-mail needs to include your name and address.
Get a letterbox sticker
Putting a 'no junk mail' sign on your door is the only way to stop junk mail delivered by local businesses. The stickers Stop Junk Mail sells also give you the option to say 'yes' or 'no' to free newspapers.
Buying one of our stickers will keep us going as well, as our campaign is funded solely by the sale of 'no junk mail' stickers. You can buy one for £1 from our shop. With your sticker you will get a free opt-out card to stop unaddressed mail delivered by the postman.
Register with the DMA's 'Your Choice' scheme
'Your Choice' is a new scheme that can help reduce the amount of unaddressed junk mail delivered by members of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). To register with ‘your choice’ you first need to contact the DMA and ask for an information pack. You can do so by sending an e-mail to dma@dma.org.uk.
Register with the Mailing Preference Service
The Mailing Preference Service (MPS) is a free service that can remove your name from many direct mail lists. You can also use the service to register a previous occupants' name at your current address.
The easiest way to register is to go to www.mpsonline.org.uk.
Opt out of being on the edited register
When you fill out your annual electoral registration form, choose for your details not to be added to the 'edited electoral register'. There is absolutely no advantage in having your personal details on the edited register. The list can be bought by any person or company and may be used for any purpose, including sending junk mail. Read your registration form carefully and tick the box to ensure that your details will appear on the 'full register' only.
Tick the box
When you give your name and address to a company, for instance when you buy a product or service, look in the small print and tick the box to say that you don't want any further information about 'other products and services'.
Often a second tick box will ask you if your personal details may be shared with other 'carefully selected' companies. Never agree with this; your name and address will be added to numerous mailing lists, resulting in more junk mail.
Return to sender
If you receive junk mail with a return address on the envelope, write 'Unsolicited mail, please return to sender' on the envelope and put it back in the post unstamped. The sender will have to pay the return postage and may remove your details from their mailing lists.
If you receive a lot of addressed junk mail, do consider buying one of our pads with return to sender labels. It makes returning junk mail a lot easier and a lot more fun…
Contact the sender
Under the Data Protection Act 1998, any organisation has to stop sending you junk mail if you directly ask them to do so. Usually it is enough to phone the sender and ask them to take your details of its mailing list. However, your request will only be legally binding if it is in writing.